Personal settings, parental control, and energy saving control of television with digital video camera

ABSTRACT

A digital system is provided that combines a digital video camera with television displays, and controlled by a controller module to enhance television performance according to personal television settings, parental controls and energy saving functions, achieved by utilizing the camera and face detection/recognition methods implemented in the controller module.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority, under 35 U.S.C. 119(e), of U.S.provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/742,704, filed on Dec. 5,2005, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to applications and systems fortelevisions that have a digital video camera attached, and in particularto personal viewing settings, parental control and energy savingcontrols of the television.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There have been many research achievements in vision technologies andsome of them have become feasible for practical applications, such asface detection and recognition. At the same time, digital video cameras,especially the low resolution Web cameras (webcams), are made very cheapand have become largely available for daily applications in the priceaspect.

Digital television industry will benefit from these two facts byattempting connecting a TV set to a video camera. The challenge is indeveloping systems and applications based on the vision technologyachievements. There is, therefore, a need for new systems andapplications that combine television together with a digital videocamera.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide new systems andapplications that combine television together with a digital videocamera. In one embodiment, the present invention provides systems andrelated methods and applications for using a digital video cameratogether with a television set. The present invention addressescomponents of the new systems that combine television and video cameraand addresses new applications and corresponding methods that improvethe performance of a television with the help of live video feed fromthe digital video camera.

With the attached video camera, the television applies face detectionand recognition techniques to find out who the viewer is andautomatically changes to the viewer's favorite settings and/or apply thepreset parental control for this viewer. The face detection output couldalso help the energy saving controls of the television.

These and other features, aspects and advantages of the presentinvention will become understood with reference to the followingdescription, appended claims and accompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of a system according to anembodiment of the present invention, which provides personal settings,parental control, and energy saving control of television with digitalvideo camera combination.

FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the controller module of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of an example face detection approachimplemented in the controller module of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows a functional block diagram of the decision making module ofthe controller module of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of a system 100, according to anembodiment of the present invention, which provides personal settings,parental control, and energy saving control of television with digitalvideo camera combination. The system 100 comprises a television display102, a parameter setting module 204, a remote control 106, a controllermodule 108 and a digital video camera 110. The television display isfurther connected to a parameter setting module 104. Module 104 can beeither in television or set-top box.

Different ways of integrating the above components are contemplated bythe present invention. In one example, the camera 110, the controllermodule 108, the parameter setting module 104 and the display 102 areintegrated (embedded) in a television set. In another example, thecontroller module 108, the parameter setting module 104 and thetelevision display 102 are integrated in a TV set, and the camera 110 isthen connected to the controller module 108. In another example, thetelevision display 102 is a common TV set, but connected to a set-topbox into which the controller module 108, the parameter setting module104 and the camera 110 are integrated. Yet in another example, thetelevision display 102 connects to a set-top box embeds the parametersetting module 104, the controller module 108, to which the camera 110is then connected. Other ways of integrating/embedding the abovecomponents are possible and contemplated by the present invention, andthe example system block diagram.

FIG. 1 illustrates functional interaction of the modules 102-110 for anyone of the above examples. The camera 110 outputs video signals (i.e.,video stream) to the controller module 108, and receives control signals(e.g., on/off, zooming, panning, etc.) from the controller module 108.The controller module 108 receives input from the parameter settingmodule 104 of the television, and selectively routes the video streamfrom the camera 110 to the television display 102. The camera 110 ispositioned such that the faces of viewers of the television 102 arewithin the field of view of the camera 110. Further, more than oncecamera 110 may be utilized and connected to the controller module 108.

The controller module 108 further generates control signals to theparameter setting module 104, to change the current settings of thetelevision display 102. The parameter setting module 104 furtherreceives input signals from the remote control 106 and generates settingsignals to the television display 102. The setting signals includewhether to show a live video stream from the camera 110, in a PIP(picture in picture) mode or full screen mode, whether to show the inputTV video signals connected directly to the Television with the currentsettings, or limit the input channels, etc.

The camera 100 may have different resolution and frame rates, and can bee.g. an infrared camera. The video captured by the digital video camera110 is directly sent to the controller module 108 which, based onneed/command, transforms the video format to one of the formats thetelevision display 102 can render. The controller module 108 is able tooutput a control signal to switch on and off the video camera 110. Ifthe digital video camera 110 has zooming or panning functionality, thecontroller module 108 is also capable of output the correspondingcontrol signals to control these functions.

FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the controller module 108,according to an embodiment of the present invention. The controllermodule include storage (e.g., RAM) 111, image/video processing module112, face detection module 114, face registration and training module116, face recognition module 118, and decision making module 120.

The image/video processing module 112 preprocesses the video signalsfrom the video camera 110, by for example, changing the video resolutionand frame rate so that the television display 102 can display the videosignal from a webcam 110. The input video signal from the camera 110 isalso processed by module 112 before sending to the face detection module114 for detecting faces in the video frames from the camera 110.

The face detection module 114 outputs the location and size of theface(s) detected. For face detection, some pre-trained data is needed,which is stored in the storage module 111 of the controller module 108.The output of face detection module 114 can be directly sent to thedecision making module 120 to select energy-saving functions such ase.g. automatic power-off. The output from face detection module 114 canalso be provided to the face registration and training module 116 whichis activated by signal from module 104 for face registration for newusers/viewers.

The new training faces are stored in the storage module 111 and all thetraining faces are used for a training process which outputs someparameters (i.e., the data needed for face recognition, such as like forthresholds, etc.), for the face recognition module 118. These parametersare again stored in the storage 111. The output from the face detectionmodule 114 can also be provided to the face recognition module 118 whichbased on the parameters stored in the storage 111, generates a faceidentification (Face ID) for the decision making module 120.

The decision making module 120 controls the video camera 110 based oninput from the parameter setting module 104, and outputs personalsettings to the parameter setting module 114 based on the Face ID andthe pre-stored settings in the storage 111. An advanced parental controlfunction can also be turned on through the remote control so that thedecision making module 120 records/logs a user's channel surfingactivity into the storage 111 and outputs the surfing activity recordsto the television display 102 for review.

The parameter setting module 104 accepts input from the controllermodule 108 change the current settings of the television display 102.The parameter setting module 104 can also accept user commands from theremote control 106 for parameter settings, and also transfer somecontrol signals from the remote control 106 to the controller module108, for example, switching on/off the video camera 110.

The remote control 106 is used by the user to command the variousmodules 102, 104, 108 and 110 in FIG. 1. The basic remote controlfunction for the digital video camera 110 is switching it on/off. Theswitching on/off signal can be sent to the decision making module 120 ofthe control unit through the parameter setting module 104. The decisionmaking module 120 then transfers the switch on signal to the videocamera 110 to turn it on. However, for the turning off signal, thedecision making module 120 first determines whether the current user hasthe authority to turn off the video camera 110, and then sends out theoff signal if the current user has such authority. Otherwise, the cameraswitch off signal is ignored.

Another function of the remote control 106 is face registration mode. Inthis mode, the face registration and training module 116 adds a facedetected to a database, wherein the new user's name can be edited viathe remote control 106.

Many approaches for face detection and recognition exist, and any one ofsuch approaches can be implemented in the controller module 108. A briefexample process for the face detection module 114 is shown in FIG. 3.

Every possible face candidate, no matter the size and location, isextracted from the frame luminance component for testing. All thecandidates in a scene input frame are tested by mapping to a binaryvalue, and detected multiple overlapped faces are merged together toobtain a single output. As such, for each input frame, every possibleface candidate, no matter the size and location, is extracted from theluminance component of the input image for testing (step 150). Thecandidate image window is first scaled to a standard size, for example,24×24 (step 152). Therefore, there will be a 24×24=384 differentgrayscale values for each candidate. The 384 different grayscale valuesare then passed through a function F_(d) that inputs these grayscales Iand outputs a scale value, which is then thresholded to obtain a binaryresult d=F_(d)(I) (step 154). If the result is 1, then the candidate isdetected as a face, otherwise, it is not a face. The function used tomap a standard size window of grayscale values to a binary rangeincludes a set of parameters, which can be obtained offline and thenstored in the storage 111.

During offline training for the parameters of F_(d), we manually label alarge number of faces f_(i), 1≦i≦N_(f), and non-faces n_(j), 1≦j≦N_(n),where N_(f) is the number of face samples and the N_(n), is the numberof non-face samples. We find a set of optimal parameters of F_(d), suchthat the detection error for the samples is minimized, as:${\hat{\Theta} = {\underset{\Theta}{\arg\quad\min}\left( {{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{N_{n}}{F_{d}\left( {\Theta,I_{j}} \right)}} - {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{N_{f}}{F_{d}\left( {\Theta,I_{i}} \right)}}} \right)}},$

where Θ is the parameter set of the function F_(d). Any of the availableface detection approaches can be used to obtain a function F_(d)together with a set of minimizing parameters.

For a real face in a video frame, there may be many candidates aroundthis face being detected as a face. These detections have overlaps andare then merged together (in step 156) based on the overlapping to asingle detection and this single detection result is output (in step158) to face classification.

The next step can be face registration or face recognition. The TVdisplay 102 includes an empty user list, and all the new users need tobe registered. A face registration process can be started from theremote control 106 by an administrative user of the TV display 102, whowill initially have access to the face registration mode through apassword. After this administrative user's face is registered, nopassword will be needed if his face is detected by the face recognitionmodule 118.

To register a new user, the administrative user needs to use the remotecontrol 106 to enter the face registration mode. In this mode, thetelevision 102 will show images of a new user directly from the videocamera 110, and the user can freeze an image once a good view of the newuser is captured. The new user's face is detected and marked with a box,and is then be confirmed by the administrative user through the remotecontrol 106. After confirmation, the detected face is scaled to astandard size and then stored in the storage 111 of the controllermodule 108. For each new user, a number of faces need to be stored for abetter recognition performance. User name is also entered through theremote control 106.

After the registration of all users, a function F_(r) in module 116 istrained to map from a standard size (e.g. 24×24) to a value ranging from0 to n, assuming there are n different registered faces. The functionF_(r) takes the grayscales I as input and outputs a category valuer=F_(r)(I), where r=i means the candidate face is face i, and there isno match when r=0. A simple approach for face recognition module 118involves computing the Euclidean distance from the candidate face fromthe stored registered faces, wherein the output category corresponds tothe smallest value, if smaller than a threshold. If all distance islarger than the threshold, the output is 0.

Other faces recognition approaches can be used to train such a functionF_(r) and its parameters Θ such that:${\hat{\Theta} = {\underset{\Theta}{\arg\quad\min}\left( {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{N}{\delta\left( {{F_{r}\left( {\Theta,I_{i}} \right)},{c(i)}} \right)}} \right)}},$

where c(i) is the category number of the registered face I_(i), N is thetotal number of the registered faces, and${\delta\left( {x,y} \right)} = \left\{ \begin{matrix}0 & {{{{if}\quad x} = y},} \\1 & {{{if}\quad x} \neq {y.}}\end{matrix} \right.$

All the parameters needed for calculating the function F_(r) are storedin the storage 111 in the controller module 108.

In the regular viewing mode, other than the face registration mode, theresult from the face detection module 114 is sent to the facerecognition module 118. The face recognition module 118 uses theparameters stored in the storage 111 to obtain a face category number.This number (i.e., the face ID number) is used by the decision makingmodule 120 to make further control decisions.

Using the face detection and recognition modules 114, 118, manyapplications can be added to the television system 100. Three exampletypes of applications according to the present invention include:personal TV settings, parental controls and energy saving controls. FIG.4 shows a functional block diagram of the decision making module 114 ofthe controller module 108, wherein based on said three exampleapplications the decision making module 114 includes: a personalsettings control module 132, a parental control module 134 and an energysavings control module 136. The decision making module 120 furtherincludes input/output control module 130. The decision making block 120has inputs and outputs same as in FIG. 2, and the input/output controlmodule 130 therein takes input from modules 104, 111 and output tomodules 104, 111 and camera 110.

Personal Settings Functions

The personal settings control module 132 provides personal TV settingapplication. Based on the video captured by the video camera 110, theface detection and recognition modules 114, 118 determine the viewer(s)and send the information to the personal setting module 132. Module 132adaptively adjust the television settings based on the viewer(s), thecurrent settings information from input/output control module 130 andoutput adjusted settings information to module 130. Such settingsinclude e.g. video settings, audio settings, channel settings, etc. Thevideo settings include e.g. color and tint settings, brightnesssettings, contrast settings, gamma settings, sharpness settings, colortemperature settings, etc. The audio settings include e.g. volumesettings, adjusting a sound system setting based on the location of theviewer, speaker settings, audio effects settings, etc. Channel settingsinclude e.g. enabling or disabling particular channels, loading afavorite channel set, etc.

For each registered viewer, there is a profile stored in the storage 111of the controller module 108. When a registered viewer is detected bythe face recognition module 118 as the only viewer, all the settingsthat changed by this viewer are recorded in the storage 111 as thecurrent profile of the viewer. Module 130 has output signals to bothstorage 111 for recording commands, and parameter setting module 104.The next time when the television 102 is turned on and this viewer isthe only viewer, based on signals from the module 130, the settings inthe viewer's profile are loaded from the storage 111 to the parametersettings module 114 of the television by the decision making module 120.If there are multiple users detected, the personal settings will not beloaded and the new settings during this viewing period will not berecorded.

In addition, based on the videos captured from the digital video camera110, the image/video processing module 112 (FIG. 2) can estimate thelighting condition of the surroundings. Based on the estimation, thecontroller module 108 will then adaptively adjust the color settings ofthe television display 102 to optimize the viewer's perception underdifferent lighting conditions. Further, with a detected face, thedecision module 120 can compute the distance between the viewer and thetelevision display 102 (e.g., based on size of the face) and accordinglyadjust the TV video, color tuning, audio settings, etc., for theparticular distance to improve the performance of the television 102.

The module 108 can further implement receiving video signal from thecamera 110, detecting and recognizing particular motions in image of aperson in the video signal via modules 114-118, and performing anintelligent task based on recognized motions via module 120.

In another implementation, the module 120 selectively performs: turningon the television display, turning off the television display, changingchannels, tuning to a particular channel, changing television displayspeaker volume, selecting a preset color/sound mode, etc.

Parental Control Functions

For each new user that is registered, the administrative user (e.g., aparent) can set the accessible channels for that new user (e.g., child).By default, all the channels are accessible. With parental controlmodule 134, the administrative user can block particular channels orselect particular accessible channels. Based on the output from thevideo camera 110, the face detection and recognition modules 114, 118determine who the viewer is. Under control of parental control module134, if there is only one viewer, that viewer's accessible channels areenabled and other channels are blocked, and when multiple viewers aredetected, the union of the accessible channels from all these viewersbecomes accessible.

The input from module 118 to the parental control module 134 includesviewer ids. Outputs of module 134 include determined accessible channellist, recording commands, etc. Module 130 provides accessible channellist for each viewer as stored in memory, to module 134.

In addition, under control of parental control module 134, theadministrative user can set whether to record the channel surfingactivities for each viewer. If this is set, when a viewer is detected,the channel surfing activities of the viewer are recorded (via a commandfrom module 134 through the input/output control module 130) in thestorage ill, and the administrative user uses the remote control 106 toreview these activities. Those activities may include e.g. the startviewing time, end viewing time of each channel viewed by the viewer,etc.

The administrative user can also set a quota for each viewer (user).Once this is set for a viewer, and that viewer is detected as one of theviewers, his/her viewing time is counted by sub-module 134. The quotacan be a daily quota, weekly quota, a one-time-viewing quota, etc. Ifall the detected viewers have reached their quota, the television 102automatically powers off based on command from module 134 through inputoutput control module 130. Daily quota and weekly quota will be resetautomatically at the beginning of each day/week by module 134.

Using the remote control 104, the administrative user can also controlthe accessible input sources of the television 102. In example, if a DVDplayer is connected to a DVI-1 input of the television 102, and a gamestation output is connected to a HDMI interface of the television 102.Further, using the remote control 104, the administrative user cancontrol the accessible input source for each viewer and set another timequota for each of the input sources. For example, the input source fromDVD players might be disabled for one viewer, and the input source fromPlay Station may be subject to another time quota of usage for thisviewer.

Improved Energy Saving Functions

As shown in FIG. 4, the output from the face detection module 114 isdirectly sent to the energy saving control module 136. Based on theoutput from the face detection module 114, if there is no viewer infront of the TV 102 for a certain amount of time, the energy savingcontrol module 136 sends control signals (through input/output controlmodule 130) so that the television 102 turn down its brightness andeventually turn off the power. The brightness is turned back up by theTV 102 if there is some reaction to the turning down, with the commandfrom decision making module 120. If there is no reaction, the TV 102 isturned off, with the command from decision making module 120 after acertain amount of time.

Screen saver mode can also be available for television 102, with theoutput from face detection module 114. Instead of turning down thebrightness, the television 102 can be switched to a screen saver mode,with a command from decision making module 120. In screen saver mode,for instance, the television 102 can be showing the family albums storedin the storage module 111.

Module 118 signals modules 132 and 134 with the viewer ids, and module114 signals whether there is any viewer. Sub-modules 132, 134 and 136signal commands out through input output control module 130. Allsub-modules 132, 134 and 136 interact with the storage module 111 andremote control 104 through the input/output control module 130.

While the present invention is susceptible of embodiments in manydifferent forms, these are shown in the drawings and herein described indetail, preferred embodiments of the invention with the understandingthat this description is to be considered as an exemplification of theprinciples of the invention and is not intended to limit the broadaspects of the invention to the embodiments illustrated. Theaforementioned example architectures above according to the presentinvention can be implemented in many ways, such as program instructionsfor execution by a processor, as logic circuits, as ASIC, as firmware,etc., as is known to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the presentinvention is not limited to the example embodiments described herein.

The present invention has been described in considerable detail withreference to certain preferred versions thereof; however, other versionsare possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claimsshould not be limited to the description of the preferred versionscontained herein.

1. A television control system, comprising: A/V devices including atelevision display and a digital video camera; and a controller modulethat performs event detection based on video signals from each cameraand controls the television.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein thecontroller module controls the A/V devices based on user commands via aremote control.
 3. The system of claim 2 further comprising a parametersetting module responsive to the controller module and the remotecontrol for controlling the television display.
 4. The system of claim 1wherein the control unit comprises a logical unit that is implemented ina set-top box.
 5. The system of claim 1 wherein the camera is embeddedin the television display.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein thecontroller module controls the television to provide one or more of:personal TV settings, parental controls and energy saving controls. 7.The system of claim 1 wherein the controller module further comprises: aface detection module that detects faces in video frames from thecamera; a face registration and training module for face registrationfor new viewers; a face recognition module which based on said facedetection and said registrations, generates a face identification; and adecision making module that controls the television based on facedetection and face recognition.
 8. The system of claim 7 wherein thecontroller module further comprises a video processing module thatprocesses signals from the camera before face detection, wherein thevideo processing module provides one or more of noise reduction, videoselection and combining, scaling, and frame rate conversion.
 9. Thesystem of claim 7 wherein: the face detection module determines if thereis any person in the video signal; the face recognition moduledetermines if the detected person's face is recognizable based on theregistrations; the decision making module performs a task based on therecognized face.
 10. The system of claim 9 wherein the decision makingmodule enables or disables a set of preset program television channelsbased on the face recognized.
 11. The system of claim 9 wherein thedecision making module enables or disables a set of input sources to thetelevision display based on the face recognized.
 12. The system of claim9 wherein the decision making module monitors and stores channel surfingactivities by the recognized person.
 13. The system of claim 12 whereinin addition to said channel surfing activities, the decision makingmodule further stores channel name, start watching time, end watchingtime, and total watching time.
 14. The system of claim 13 where thedecision making module disables one or more channels based on the totalwatching time and a preset allowed watching time for one or morechannels.
 15. The system of claim 14 wherein the decision making moduleresets the time quota periodically.
 16. The system of claim 9 whereinthe decision making module loads into the television display personalvideo settings for the recognized person.
 17. The system of claim 9wherein the decision making module loads into the television displaypersonal audio setting for the recognized person.
 18. The system ofclaim 9, wherein if the face detection module detects no face in a scenefor a preset time period, the decision making module sends a controlsignal to the television display to enter into energy saving mode. 19.The system of claim 9, wherein if the face detection module detects noface in a scene for a preset time period, the decision making modulesends a signal to the television display to lower brightness andthereafter eventually turn off if no face detected.
 20. The system ofclaim 9, wherein if the face detection module detects no face in a scenefor a preset time period, the decision making module sends signal totelevision display to display preset images.
 21. The system of claim 9,wherein the decision making module adjusts the sound system settingbased on the location of the recognized person.
 22. The system of claim9, wherein the decision making module computes the distance of therecognized person from the television displays, and tunes televisioncolor settings based on the distance.
 23. The system of claim 1 thecontroller module comprises: a video processing module that processessignals from the camera and estimates environmental lighting conditionstherefrom; a decision making module that adjusts the television videosettings based on the estimated environment lighting conditions.
 24. Anapplication method for a television system including a televisiondisplay and a digital video camera, and a controller, the methodcomprising the steps of: receiving video signals from the camera; thecontroller detecting whether the video signal includes image of a face,and if so: recognizing the face in the video signal; and performing anintelligent task based on the recognized face.
 25. The method of claim24 wherein the step of performing an intelligent task based on therecognized face further includes the steps of enabling or disabling aset of preset television program channels based on the face recognized.26. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of performing an intelligenttask based on the recognized face further includes the steps of enablingor disabling one or more of a set of input sources.
 27. The method ofclaim 24 wherein the step of performing an intelligent task based on therecognized face further includes the steps of starting to record theevents of channel surfing activities by viewer whose face is recognized.28. The method of claim 27 wherein the step of recording the events ofchannel surfing activities further includes the steps of recordingchannel name, start watching time, end watching time, and total watchingtime.
 29. The method of claim 28 further including the steps ofdisabling one or more channels based on the total watching time and apreset allowed watching time quota for said one or more channels. 30.The method of claim 29 further including the steps of the resetting thetime quota periodically.
 31. The method of claim 24 wherein the steps ofperforming an intelligent task based on the recognized face of a personfurther includes the steps of loading personal video settings for therecognized person.
 32. The method of claim 24 wherein the step ofperforming an intelligent task based on the recognized face of a personfurther includes the steps of loading personal audio setting for therecognized person.
 33. The method of claim 24 further including thesteps of: upon detecting that there is no face in the scene for a presettime period, sending a signal to the television display to turn thebrightness lower gradually and if after another time period no motion orface is detected, turn the power off eventually.
 34. The method of claim24 further including the steps of: upon detecting that there is no facein the scene for a preset time period, then signaling the televisiondisplay to start a power saving mode.
 35. The method of claim 24 furtherincluding the steps of: upon detecting that there is no face in thescene for a preset time period, signaling the television displaypredefined video.
 36. The method of claim 24 wherein the step ofperforming an intelligent task based on the recognized face furtherincludes the steps of adjusting television display sound setting basedon the location of the face relative to the camera.
 37. The method ofclaim 24 wherein the step of performing an intelligent task based on therecognized face of a person further includes the steps of directing theangle of the display, a speaker and/or the camera towards the person.38. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of performing an intelligenttask based on the recognized face of a person further includes the stepscomputing the distance of the face from the camera based on its size,and display tuning color settings based on the distance.
 39. Atelevision control system, comprising: A/V devices including atelevision display and a digital video camera; a controller module thatperforms event detection based on video signals from each camera andcontrols the television; a remote control that allows a user to commandthe A/V devices and the controller module; controller module including:a face detection module that detects faces in video frames from thecamera; a face registration and training module for face registrationfor new viewers; a face recognition module which based on said facedetection and said registrations, generates a face identification; and adecision making module that selectively controls the television based onuser commands, face detection and face recognition.
 40. The system ofclaim 39 wherein the decision making module comprises: a personalsetting control module that allows personal TV setting application basedon viewer face recognition; an administrative control module thatenables television viewing control over viewers based on viewer facerecognition; and an energy saving control module that based on facedetection enables energy saving mode.
 41. The system of claim 39 whereinthe controller module selectively performs one or more of: turning onthe television display; turning off the television display; changingchannels; tuning to a particular channel; changing television displayspeaker volume; selecting a preset color/sound mode.
 42. The method ofclaim 39 wherein the controller module selectively feeds the videosignal from the camera to the television display.